MANIFESTO TO THE UNITED NATIONS

This document was presented to the United Nations near the end of World War II just as the UN was beginning to operate as an organization.   Issues of the peace treaties to end the war as well as how the victorious world powers would restructure global relations were still to be decided. 

Questions to consider:
What do it say about African participation in World War II?
What were the major goals of the authors of this document?  How did they justify their demands?
What did they think should be the shape of the post-WWII world?
According to them, who would lead the development of Africa?  How were these leaders similar to or different from Africans in general?

Questions for Collaboration:
How did these aspirations match reality in Nigeria--as defined by the British and various Nigerians?
What questions does this document raise for your study of Biafra/Nigeria?

From: J. Ayodele Langley, Pan-Africanism and Nationalism in West Africa, 1900-1945 (Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1973), 380-382 from Labour Monthly, xxvii (January-December, 1945), 154-156 

April 1945

PROMULGATED and supported by The League of Coloured Peoples in co-operation with West African Students' Union (London), International African Service Bureau (London), Negro Association (Manchester), Negro Welfare Centre (Liverpool, and Manchester), Coloured Men's Institute (East London), and endorsed by the following Colonial Trade Union Leaders on behalf of their unions:

J. S. Annan, Gold Coast Trade Unions.
T. A. Bankole, President, Nigerian T.U.C.
H. N. Critchlow, British Guiana Trade Unions.
J. A. Garha-Jahumpa, Secretary, Gambia T.U.C.

The decisions of the historic Crimea Conference [Yalta] represent the consolidation of the alliance of the three great powers, Great Britain, the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in the final phase of the war of liberation against Hitlerite Germany. They demonstrate the unity and singleness of purpose of the anti-fascist powers to 'destroy German militarism and Nazism and to ensure that Germany will never again be able to disturb the peace of the world'. The decisions aim also at the prevention of any future aggression and at the removal of the political, economic and social causes of war with the close and continuing collaboration of all peace-loving peoples.

By their Declaration the leaders of the three Governments have reaffirmed their faith in the principles of the Atlantic Charter, their pledge in the Declaration by the United Nations and their determination to build in co-operation with other peace-loving nations a world order dedicated to a secure and lasting peace which will 'afford assurance that all men in all the lands may live out their lives in freedom from fear and want'.

The dawn of a new epoch in world relations is thus breaking. Only on the basis of the unity of purpose and of action which has made victory in the war possible for the United Nations can the highest aspiration of humanity--a secure and lasting peace--be realised.

Establishment of an International Organisation
The decision regarding the establishment of an International Organisation confirms and consolidates the decisions of the United Nations already reached at Teheran, Bretton Woods, Dumbarton Oaks and Hot Springs to provide the framework of future world security and prosperity. The problems of mankind are now recognised as the concern of the entire world.

Over large areas of the world millions of people live in poverty, disease, squalor and ignorance. Their continued low standards of life constitute a serious threat to the standards of people everywhere and represent a powerful challenge to the financial and technological resources of the more advanced nations joined together in collaboration to promote world prosperity and the happiness of mankind.

The vast continent of Africa with its 160 million inhabitants and immense though undeveloped resources in mineral, forest and agricultural wealth must command the attention of the international organisation. The rapid economic development, industrialisation and the advancement of the social standards of Africa must form an integral part of any plan to build world prosperity.

United Nations must free themselves of the evils against which they are fighting
Africa is a land of varied political forms, economic interests and social and cultural standards. This is complicated by the fact that among the powers with imperial possessions in Africa are fascist Spain and fascist Portugal. It is further complicated by the colour-bar laws and practices obtaining within the territories of some of the United Nations themselves, notably the Union of South Africa. The United Nations are pledged to secure in addition to the military defeat of fascism, the eradication of its moral and political manifestations, chief of which is the theory of the master race against inferior races. If the principles for which we fight do not apply only to Europe, then it is the duty of the United Nations to eliminate the influence of the Spanish and Portuguese fascist regimes and to remove from their own territories those theories and practices for the destruction of which Africans have died on many battlefields. In this way alone can true international collaboration and planning for the future of Africa proceed in conditions free from conflict and favourable to such collaboration.

Recommendations
In the belief that it is the eager desire of the United Nations to begin with the least possible delay the solution of these problems, we recommend:

1. That the International Organisation should immediately adopt policies and set up all necessary machinery to secure the uniform and rapid development of the economic, social and cultural life of the African peoples.
2. That guided by the principle of equal rights for all men and recognising that the success of any scheme will depend on the measure to which Africans themselves participate, steps should be taken for the provision of maximum opportunity for such participation at all levels of administration. The present inferior political, economic and social status of tile African peoples militates against the achievement of harmonious co-operation among the peoples of the world. International co-operation demands the abolition of every kind of discrimination on account of colour, race and creed wherever such discrimination exist.
3. The present system of exploitation by which the bulk of the wealth produced in Africa goes to enrich foreign monopoly firms and individuals must be replaced by systematic planning and development whereby in the first place the Africans themselves shall be the principal beneficiaries of the wealth produced, then an equal opportunity shall be afforded to all nations in the exchange of products. In this regard an international council representative of producer and consumer interests should be established within the framework of the International Organisation for the stabilisation of commodity prices at levels ensuring reasonable returns to producers and maximum satisfaction to consumers.
4. Simultaneously with economic development progressive steps should be taken to associate Africans with the management of their own affairs with a view toward the achievement of full self-government within a definite time limit, as in the case of the Philippine Commonwealth.
5. The eradication of mass illiteracy calls for energetic measures no less sustained than those which aim at the ending of poverty, disease and squalor. The greater the spread of education for both children and adults the greater will be the pace of advancement of the peoples as a whole. That it is possible to eradicate mass illiteracy within a short space of time is proved by the experience of Soviet Central Asia, where 20 years ago there was a very small percentage of illiteracy, but where now illiteracy has been practically abolished and universities flourish.
6. The former Italian colonies now under military rule shall have the same treatment as the rest of the African territories and shall be given every assistance in development along with these other territories on the road to full-self-government.

African peoples earned right to benefit by new concept
We believe that the African peoples by their contribution in manpower and material resources in the war against fascism; by their service in Ethiopia, East Africa, the Western Desert, Italy and in the Battle of Germany; and by their service in Burma in the eastern war against Japan, have earned the right to expect that they shall benefit as a result of the new concept of international co-operation which has been acquired in the course of the grim ordeal of the war of liberation against fascism.

(Signed by) Harold A. Moody, George Padmore, K. A. Chunchie,J. S. Annan, H. N. Critchlow, Samson Morris, R. W. Beoku-Betts, T.A. Bankole, K. A. Korsah, J. A. Garba-Jahumpa, C. B. Clarke.

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